Tuesday, October 26, 2010

So here is the first of many to-be allergy-free product reviews. These are incredibly important to those allergy folks out there because many store-bought allergy-free items taste like... crap or shredded cardboard.

So for your viewing pleasure we have a customer review of Gluten Free Dairy Free frozen pizza. Yes, people that are forced to eat healthy crave processed food too.

I was pleasantly surprised with the lake of cardboard-ness. The crust was like a thin crust pizza. The lack of cheese was fine with the sweet onion sauce. The toppings were nothing to talk about. Could add prosciutto, sausage, real roasted peppers or sun-dried tomatoes. But for a late night snack after paper-chain making and working on a Halloween costume, it was satisfying. Rating 4/5 stars (mostly because of the crust).

Excellent pairings for this pizza: Sweet Baby Ray's which always adds something to any meal or whiskey. In my case I chose both. Yay for my Friday night on a Monday night!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Yes, the glorious days of pumpkin puree have begun! I stumbled upon this amazing recipe via cookitallergyfree.com. Combining two of my favorite things: pumpkin and waffles! The recipe following... was sketchy to say the least. They taste like... well all I can taste is the gluten free all purpose flour and lack of gluten and eggs :-/ yeah, you just can't get past that. BUT, I really think the buckwheat and pumpkin duo is great.

Ingredients. Bob's Red Mill was on sale so I picked up these three today: brown rice flour, amaranth flour, and sweet white rice flour.

I made my own all purpose flour because I ran out and because I have an exorbitant amount of flours at this point (though, it never seems like enough). I used this recipe though I don't have potato starch (1/2 cup corn starch) or quinoa flour (replaced with more brown rice flour).

2 cups sorghum flour

2 cups brown rice flour (I use superfine brown rice flour)

1 1/2 cups potato starch, not potato flour

1/2 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup sweet rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup amaranth flour

1/2 cup quinoa flour

Kept the dry and wet separate and folded them in. Whisked those fake eggs into submission.

Ingredients:1 1/2 cups all purpose gluten-free flour1 cup buckwheat flour3 teaspoons baking powder (aluminum and gluten-free) hmmm?1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda1/2 teaspoon sea salt2 teaspoons ground cinnamon1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or more cinnamon, or nutmeg, or a pinch of ground cloves)1/3 cup packed brown sugar (or coconut sugar)-didn't originally add this but is in important HOWEVER, that was the cause of the sticking to the griddle issueEggs-Egg-Free version: mix 3 tsp of Ener G Egg Replacer with 4 Tbsp water or non-dairy milk. Whisk until as foamy as possible. This is only the replacement equivalent to 2 eggs, but this is quite adequate. 1 cup plain non-dairy milk of choice1/2 cup water1 can organic pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)It asks for kefir (fermented milk) and yogurt. Obviously that's not happening. So I used the whole can of pumpkin and a bit of water.6 Tablespoons Organic Canola oil, OR Earth Balance Vegan buttery sticks (melted), OR organic butter (melted) -The vegan butter was not enough, I would definitely use at least half canola oil and half butter. Directions:1. In medium bowl, sift together all-purpose flour blend, buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon and other spices of choice. Once blended, mix in the sugar.2. In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk (dairy-free) , organic pumpkin, and oil (or melted Vegan butter, or dairy butter). Combine until smooth. 3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently fold until just incorporated (do not over-mix).4. Let batter sit for five minutes while allowing your waffle iron to heat up. Make sure to brush the waffle grates with A LOT of oil. For a 7 inch round waffle iron, add about 2/3 to 1 cup of batter to the center and quickly spread. Close lid and cook according to iron directions.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Monday night I made Gypsy Soup, a recipe my sister passed on. It's sooo delicious and spicy: cinnamon, cayenne, basil, bay leaf, paprika, etc. I had my folks over to eat it with me.
Soup in the makin:

That night I mixed up a Bob's Red Mill yellow cake which was fairly decent. I used 1 flax egg and 2 Ener-G eggs which was good (vs. 3 flax eggs-would have been tough). It was a pretty... doughy cake and was tricky to spread in a 9x13 but, it rose well. My housemate Marie whipped up some DELICIOUS vegan frosting with, a stick of vegan butter (expensive margarine), cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and vanilla. It was thick and fantastic after being used to powdered sugar icing. Photos turned out fuzzy-it's not much to look at anyways. :)

Here is my epic BLTA today. I could eat this three times a day. It's epic because I realized I'm a social bacon eater, meaning I don't cook it at home but will happily eat it else where. I think it's in part to the fact that I currently live with 5 vegetarians and I'm very considerate. Today though-you could feel the grease in the house (with apologies). It was made with my special bread, vegan mayo, BACON, spinach, Gramma's tomatos, and avocado. Mmmm!

Unfortunately, avocados are getting lame, I wish I knew someone who would ship them to me from Miami. Later today I was making chicken and noticed I had left the bacon-greased frying pan on the stove on accident. So... yes, I threw my chicken breast and veggies right on in it and it was glorious.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

I wanted to whip up Gypsy Soup but, feeling ill, it just didn't happen. So after home-roasting some garlic and peppers. I made roasted red pepper hummus (never made it before) and curried tuna salad (never had it before). Mama picked me up a gluten-free vegan sourdough loaf from New Cascadia Bakery. Awesome!

Dig in! Great combo!

Roasted Red Peppers
Why don't I do this everyday! OH it was so good!
For beginners: try not to make the smoke detectors go off. When they say watch the peppers like a hawk they mean it. Let's just say I had issues with that. Here's a great tutorial with lots of photos. Garlic was simple, mainly because I have a garlic roaster from momma. But here's a tutorial using a muffin tin instead, again with lots of photos.

Curried Tuna Salad
1 6- ounce can of tuna, drained and flaked
1 large. or 2 small ribs of celery, diced
1 Tablespoon chopped onion
3 teaspoons curry powder
3- 4 Tablespoons of mayonnaise
salt and pepper, to taste
In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Apparently: chilling for 1- 2 hours is strongly recommended, to allow the curry powder to interact with the other ingredients-leftovers might be better than. Enjoy.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, started with this recipeone can chickpeas (drained and rinsed if using canned)1 roasted red pepper, coarsely chopped1 head garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped2-3 Tbsp olive oiljuice of 1 lemonsea salt
I added 2 TBS water because I ran out of EVOO :(
Directions: food process, eat and then eat more.

Friday, October 15, 2010

So, yes it may look like shredded cardboard but it cooked well. It was doughy, risen, and delicious. I dipped it in home made sesame-fee hummus and it was just... I could eat it every day. I think if I use some other flours it could look prettier. The flaxseed 'fake egg' causes the grainy look. Maybe potato flour and ener-G egg replacement would be better. Could all be made in 30 min!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The fact that I didn't have to cook for two weeks has inspired me to actually do so now that I'm home. I had been fed up with cooking for myself, hadn't been home much, and had been paying the price. So tonight, at 10PM I decided to wip up some buckwheat waffles.

Turned out rad, wish I had followed the recipe a bit better and wish I could make a PB&J waffle BUT they were fantastic none the less. I used a recipe from a blog and made necessary adjustments. I liked not having to mix the flax meal (my fake egg) before hand and just using one bowl-an oddity with my cooking.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together all flours, flax seeds, tapioca, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Create a well in the center and add the remaining ingredients. Use a fork to mix well for about a minute. Let the batter rest.

Warm up the waffle iron and go for it! It made less than 2 waffles but, my waffle iron is huge. Next time I will not forget the maple syrup, I may spread it out on the iron a lot so they are crunchy, and I will make whipped faux-cream for the top!